Personal Trainers - What Do They Teach You? 

We all probably wish sometimes that we could have own personal trainer - just like the celebrities we watch and admire - to guide us through our workouts and keep us on the straight and narrow when it comes to exercise. But personal trainers are expensive, and are out of the reach of many of us. If you can't afford a trainer of your own, try incorporating these trainer hints and tips into your day and you’ll be on your way to making your workout more effective.

Find a buddy:

One of the benefits of a personal trainer is having someone to hold you accountable for your exercise. A trainer is paid to do this for you but the free solution is within your own circle of friends. Ask a reliable friend to be your workout partner and just the knowledge that she's depending on you to work out with her will increase the odds of you staying on track with your exercise. A unique way of ensuring success is to allow each partner a certain number of "cuts" or missed sessions per month – at a price. Failing to show up for a session with your trainer still costs you money and so should skipping your workout with your friend. Cough up $10 for each missed session and let it accumulate for a while. At the end of a predetermined time frame, use the money to treat yourselves to a luxurious splurge.

Shorter workouts can be as effective as longer ones:

Of course, in an ideal world we would like to be able to work out for at least 45 minutes, but with busy schedules and demanding jobs finding time to exercise can be a struggle. The good news is that you don't need a huge block of time to see results. Studies have shown that workouts as short as 10 to 15 minutes can strengthen the body and improve your health. Fit several brief workouts into your day and you not only increase your metabolism throughout the day but you also, hopefull, reach the ideal activity level of 45-60. Don’t get discouraged by lack of time - just do the best with what you've got.

Add variety to see results:

The fastest way to see changes in your body is to keep surprising it! Changing your routine every few days prevents your body from becoming conditioned to the same exercise day after day and requires it to call on different muscles for different activities. This means more muscles are worked and you see the effects on your body in much less time than usual. An excellent method of adding variety is to incorporate weight lifting into your cardio routine. This requires the body to respond to challenges to balance, strength, and more, and speeds up your results. If you normally work out in the gym, try switching to swimming (which combines cardio with, effectively, weight training) for a few days. 

Intensify for more strength:

Most trainers recommend increasing the intensity of your workout to see improvement in your strength and aerobic capability. Too often people become comfortable with their level of exertion and stop working as hard. Boosting the intensity keeps the body challenged and working harder. Weight-lifters should try adding 3-5 pounds to their current weight and see the difference in toning and strength after a few sessions.

Know your excuses and head them off:

Personal trainers often deal with clients who make all kinds of excuses to get out of a session or to avoid a certain exercise, and must keep the client on track without offending. When you are your own personal trainer, though, it can be difficult to discipline yourself to stick to your exercise schedule unless you give yourself an advantage. Sit down and write down all the excuses you could use to avoid exercising. Now find a way of countering all those excuses! For example, if you wrote down lack of time as an excuse, oppose it with suggestions for short, frequent workouts rather than one long session. If you can anticipate your own excuses and know how to respond to them, you've won half the battle against apathy. 

Make it fun:

Perhaps the most common complaint about exercise is that it becomes boring too quickly. Personal trainers help you get through boredom by changing your routine or offering you new choices for activities. Help yourself break out of the boredom rut by choosing activities that appeal to you. Instead of spending thirty minutes inside on the treadmill, go for a hike on a local nature path. Rather than doing your aerobics video for the millionth time, go outside with your kids and jump on the trampoline for a while. The goal is to choose an activity that you enjoy and that requires physical activity, so break out your tennis racquets and bicycles!

Schedule and commit:

Signing up for a personal trainer is a commitment of your time, money and energy, and perhaps because of that commitment people with personal trainers tend to stick with the program. If you can apply that same sense of obligation to your personal exercise program, you'll increase your chances of success. Schedule your workouts just like any other appointment and write it in your calendar. Knowing that you have set aside time for exercise can help you  follow through and stick to a successful program.

Reward yourself:

Set checkpoints throughout your exercise program to assess  your progress. Whether your goal is to lose weight, build  muscle, or simply improve your health, take the time to check  up on your improvement and then reward yourself for all the hard work!